One of motor racing's
engineering and design geniuses is to become an entrant in next year's
Global Ocean Race joining the eight teams already preparing for the start.
Mike Gascoyne, famous for his work with several Formula One racing teams
and now CEO of Caterham Technology and Caterham Composites, will be at the
PSP Southampton Boat Show for the start of the round-the-world race in
September 2014 with a new Class40 boat, Caterham Challenge, to be
launched this summer.
Since the late 1980s,
Mike Gascoyne has been at the highest level of F1 design and Caterham
Challenge will bring the sport’s standards of technology,
innovation and logistics to offshore yacht racing. Gascoyne’s team
– which includes the UK’s most experienced round-the-world
sailor, Brian Thompson – is building an Akilaria RC3 Class40 and
their high-powered racing yacht will be launched on the South Coast in
early August 2013 with sailing and training in The Solent and English
Channel.
A press conference was
held on Wednesday at the Caterham F1 Team’s HQ in Oxfordshire:
“It is a very proud day for me with the announcement of the
Caterham Challenge sailing project,” said Gascoyne.
“Sailing has always been an important part of my life and the
opportunity to combine my love of sailing with my experience of 24 years at
the top of F1 motorsports is very unique.”
Mike Gascoyne is an
experienced shorthanded and single-handed sailor and completed a solo
transatlantic passage on a Class40 last year. Ahead of the round-the-world
Global Ocean Race 2014-15, the racing programme for Caterham
Challenge includes the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre in November
2013. “With the launch of our new Class40 boat, the Global Ocean Race
was a natural target for the project with the ultimate challenge of racing
around the world,” Gascoyne continued.
Mike Gascoyne
International (MGI) – Gascoyne’s engineering consultancy firm -
will bring his team’s experience in F1, R&D and competitive sport
marketing to yacht racing: “I am also very happy that MGI joins with
the GOR as a Race Partner, which clearly demonstrates the commitment of MGI
to the offshore sailing world.”
Britain’s most
capped round-the-world sailor, Brian Thompson, joins Caterham
Challenge as Sailing Director: “I’m very excited to be on
board for the launch of the Caterham Challenge project,” said
Thomson, holder of 27 sailing world records and the only person to
have circumnavigated the globe four times non-stop. “I will be
combining sailing duties with Mike and also looking at the development of
the whole sailing and racing program for the team. Class40 and the GOR are
a great challenge, but just the start of the story for Caterham Challenge
and the whole team.”
The Caterham
Challenge entry brings the current total of GOR teams to nine.
“Having Mike's Caterham Challenge campaign alongside our other
entries for the event next year shows the attraction of the Global Ocean
Race to sailors from different countries,” comments Mark Howell,
Media Director of the GOR. “This project brings F1 know-how, thinking
and management to an offshore racing campaign adding another dimension to
this international event."
Josh Hall, GOR Race
Director, has been working closely with the Caterham team: “Mike
Gascoyne has augmented his already talented team with some impressive
sailors,” says Hall. “He is a skilled and driven individual who
creates a culture for success in whatever he does. This is what is making
the race next year so exciting already. I am sure that Caterham
Challenge will be in the fast lane in every respect. Welcome to the
GOR.”
The GOR starts from
the PSP Southampton Boat Show on Sunday 21st September 2014 and finishes in
Gunwharf Quays Portsmouth in early May 2015 with the racing fleet making
stopovers in Cape Town, South Africa; in Charleston, USA, before returning
to Europe. The Australasian and South American stopovers have been
confirmed and will shortly be announced officially.
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